12.2 Communicating With Patients: Building Trust and Rapport
12.2 Communicating With Patients: Building Trust and Rapport
Katie Baker
Healthcare providers communicate with patients for a variety of reasons. You may discuss test results, lab findings, or new complaints with your patients. Additionally, you may work with patients to develop a plan of action involving a multidisciplinary team of providers. In all of your communications, compassion and empathy should be your top priorities. Every communication has the potential to either build trust and rapport or lead to distrust and a breakdown in the provider-patient relationship.
In this section, we will explore how to communicate with diverse patient populations. This may involve using assistive devices to communicate with individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing or those who are mute. It may also include communicating with patients who speak a different language through a medical interpreter. We will discuss how to access resources that your healthcare organization may already have in place to support patient communication.
It is important to note that most patients do not have the background to understand medical terminology. Therefore, using understandable and accessible language is essential when explaining healthcare options and diagnoses to patients and their families. In some instances, a patient advocate may be helpful in supporting the patient and their family in navigating their healthcare, including helping them understand the information being shared by their providers.
Finally, the emotional content of the conversation between a provider and a patient is crucial to consider. Delivering unexpected bad news or the negative prognosis of a serious illness requires a gentle approach. Likewise, joyful outcomes such as a healthy birth or positive treatment results require providers to express empathy with the patient and their family. Emotional intelligence, which includes the ability to connect interpersonally and regulate one’s own emotional expression, is a key skill for every healthcare provider.
Communicating With Diverse Patient Populations
You may encounter patients who require specific communication accommodations, such as interpretation services or the use of assistive devices. In these instances, it is the provider’s responsibility to ensure that all communication is clear and understood by the patient. In this section, we will discuss the legal responsibilities of healthcare organizations regarding communication assistance, as well as examples of assistive devices you may encounter. We will also cover how to access communication assistance in Washington State.
Federal law requires healthcare organizations to provide medical interpreters at no cost to patients. Relevant laws include the Americans with Disabilities Act and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Washington State Health Care Authority, n.d.). In 2000, President Clinton signed Executive Order 13166, which mandates all organizations receiving federal funding to provide in